After falling into an early deficit, the St. Lawrence University Men's Basketball team clawed its way back into the game and made a late run but fell short by a 77-71 score to Medaille College Friday night in the first round of the Western New York Knee and Orthopedic Surgery Tournament at the Sullivan Center in Buffalo, NY.

Medaille (1-1) jumped out to an early lead scoring 15 of the first 16 points of the contest and led 20-2 with 11:49 left in the opening half. St. Lawrence (0-3) battled back scoring seven of the next eight points to trim the lead but the Mavericks connected on 10-of-14 3-point shots in the first half to maintain a double-digit lead and took an 18-point lead at 48-30 into the halftime intermission.

In the second half, Riley Naclerio hit an early layup and Ben Crawford and Kyle Edwards followed later with jumpers to trim the lead to 14 points. With 13:09 to play, Willie Zachery hit a pair of free throws to make it an 11-point game at 55-44.

Naclerio hit a 3-pointer and then later hit a short jumper to further cut the lead as the Saints trailed by just nine points with 9:28 left.

Medaille regained the double-digit advantage and took a 15-point lead at 66-51 with 6:51 on the clock before St. Lawrence made another run. After five free throws, Naclerio hit another 3-pointer to trim the lead to 11 but Medaille scored the next five points to lead by 16at 75-59 with 1:35 left in the game.

Dom DeRegis and Kaleb Faison hit consecutive 3-pointers and after a Naclerio steal, Crawford scored a layup to cut the lead to eight points but only four seconds remained on the clock. Naclerio hit two free throws with one second left for the final margin of victory.

Naclerio led the Saints with 15 points while Crawford recorded a double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Chris Minor added 12 points and DeRegis chipped in 11 as both came in off the bench for the Saints.

After shooting 72 percent (18-for-25) in the first half, Medaille managed just 7-for-26 (27%) in the second half. The Mavericks hit 10 3-pointers in the first 20 minutes but struggled with just 2-for-11 shooting beyond the arc in the second half.